MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today announced the signing of a five-year agreement to jointly support research that will help advance drug discovery and manufacturing. The effort will focus on tools and measurements that will be used in the development and production of biopharmaceuticals, which are drugs and treatments derived from biological, rather than chemical, sources.